Brandnetel, I like that you are experimenting with washing a white mold cheese. there's an interesting thread called leaf wrapping cheeses on the aging board and in that thread are some postings by Alex about a cheese he wraps with a handkerchief soaked in beer or wine. The cheese also has a layer of paprika if I remember correctly. Check out that thread for fun.

About your thick and slip skins......I think with the heating season it becomes a problem during the initial draining of the cheeses. I am having thicker skins since the indoor air got so dry because, I theorize, the surface is drying before the inside can drain enough. I just made a batch of 3 Shitake Brie and that required me to make 6 halves that get put together around a layer of ground Shitake. 4 of the halves were molded in well-perforated basket type molds and 2 were in Reblochon/mini-Tomme molds with few holes. I was concerned during draining that the less perforated molds weren't draining well enough but the reverse end result has been true. The cheeses are assembled now and the halves from the basket type molds are almost twice as tall and WAY too thick to make a good Brie so now I' faced with Shitake Cams or doing surgery to reduce the height. I might try both options since I have the two that are too tall. My conclusion is that I either need to create a less dry micro climate for the draining or use molds with less perforation.

As to your dry paste issue you are dealing with I hope someone else will chime in. I too wonder if too much culture might play a role in that but I don't have the experience to tell you.

Forgot to mention that since ammonia is heavier than air, opening a lid of container to air it out won't necessarily reduce the ammonia in that box unless you turn it upside down or blow it out with a fan.

Yes, for this effort I'm not quite sure where I am in between the worlds of white mold and washed rind. Appreciate your reminder on ammonia, I am airing one out now on a plate for an hour or two before sampling - we'll see how that goes.

Thank you! I just made a batch of 4 of them and will post a photo series showing the Shitake and bark steps. My neighbor just stopped by with some dried morels (that he wildcrafted) so that I can make a morel Brie. That should be amazing!

For whatever reason, since I dropped the ref. temp on these, there had even been a little resurgence of moisture on the surface.

In the past the rind was just too much, and I think my stomach was not really liking it. So I cut it off.

Paste had obviously ripened all the way through to a creamy consistency.

Two distinct separate layers of rind - white on the interior and more dry, very moist stinky beige/orange on the exterior. Despite all of the weird rind issues, the interior seemed pristine and fully softened.

Scraped out the interior paste only and tried it on crackers. It was super goopy.

So, I am cautiously optimistic that my 3 remaining cheeses will also be good to eat, and I think I will share them with others to see what they think. I'm so glad it seems this batch was not a complete loss and it has provided a lot of lessons for the next go-round.

Opened up another one of these over the holidays. It was pretty good and the rind had even dried out a bit and was sort of thin/crisp and moderately pleasant to eat. I was really surprised that the middle of this one was not quite fully ripe after so long, but it was very enjoyable all around.

To be on the safe side, we aired this one out on the back porch, with a salad spinner over it to deter curious critters.

The rind had dried out and took on a slightly darker orangey color.

You can see where the outer portion of the rind had broken from bad slipskin.

Very promising gooey interior exposed.

However, you can see the chunkier texture of the not fully ripe center portion.

We scooped out the paste like the rind was a big bowl around it.

Varying portions of more gooey and less ripe bits, some with some rind too.

I have one left now I am looking to eat very soon, rind on the remaining cheese is getting very dark brown at the edges. Using the lessons learned on this batch in my current Cam effort.

Thanks to both of you Antipodeans for the nice feedback! This cheese definitely separated folks into two groups . . . . :-) But based on the strong aroma all through the aging process, I am probably backing off of another B. Linens effort in the near future. We'll see in my current straight PC/GC Cam effort whether I managed to clean it out of my fridge sufficiently . . . . . . .